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Recent surveys carried out by the salary research company Baltic Salario Survey reveal that without an improvement in the economic situation, 35 percent. employers plan to cut wages and fire 17 percent. Employees Official statistics from Sodra and the Employment Service (UT) confirm that the incomes of the Lithuanian population are declining and that the ranks of unemployed are supplemented by a thousand daily. up to 2 thousand. people
Forgive en masse
Last month, UT received near-daily reports from companies of planned mass layoffs. There are many well-known company names among those that streamline operations or close. The largest number of people, 370, reject the passenger airline GetJet Airlines. UAB “Avion Express” doing the same – 50.
Intermedix Lietuva, a US capital information technology (IT) development company. USA With a service center in Kaunas, it announced that it will fire another 175 employees. It is true that this redundancy is not related to the COVID-19 crisis, since the company decided to suspend its operations in Lithuania. Already on January 3, 308 people from the company received warnings about such a fate.
A large group of employees is fired by another foreign company. Yazaki Wiring Technologies Lietuva UAB (formerly Baltijos Baltijos technika, UAB, acquired by the Japanese international corporation YAZAKI in 2003 from the German company Siemens) in 2003 has been losing jobs to Klaipėda, which has been producing wiring harnesses for the automotive industry in Klaipėda since 1993. Another company with a similar profile, which has been operating in the port city for only two years, the German capitalist company for the production of electrical cable sets “Baltijos Eukutecas”, which cooperates with the German manufacturer of plastic and Electrical equipment “Werner Wirth” announced the dismissal of 47 employees in mid-April.
Some workers who were not laid off felt the fight for lower wages in their wallets.
Last month, it was announced that the services of 84 people were rejected by AB Utenos Trikotažas. The 76 employees decided to be fired by another sewing company – UAB “Rožė”, 79 – by the footwear manufacturer AB “Lituanica”, 59 – by the UAB “Topo grupė” commercial appliance chain. Several catering companies and a tourism organizer sent layoff notices.
Until mid-March, UTs reached massive redundancies much less frequently, on average two per week, and last year only once.
The flow of unemployed has decreased
According to UT data, last week the lowest number of job applicants was registered during the entire quarantine period, an average of 1.1 thousand people per working day. customers As always before quarantine. In the first week of quarantine – almost 1.2 thousand, in the second – 1.4 thousand, in the third – 1.8 thousand, in the fourth – 1.9 thousand, in the fifth – 1.5 thousand, in the sixth, as in the first – 1.2 thousand
During the seventh week of quarantine, most new customers working in unskilled jobs were registered. Among the unemployed, 4.5 percent. The participation of operators and assemblers of plants and machines grew 2.7%. The number of employees and vendors in the service sector decreased.
Among the new clients, the least registered in the lodging and food service activities, other service activities, professional, scientific and technical activities, human health and social work sectors. The number of registrants for wholesale and retail trade and for lodging and food service activities decreased by 0.8 percent each.
During the quarantine period, 22.4 percent. of job applicants worked in the commercial sector, about 20 percent. – in the manufacturing sector.
Work is also less
Since the beginning of the quarantine (March 16), employers in Lithuania have submitted a total of 14.5 thousand. job offers Last week, employers registered 4 thousand. vacancies, almost double that of April 20 and 26. More than half of the job offers are in Šiauliai County, where transport companies have registered almost 2,000. vacancies for drivers or forwarding drivers of international freight vehicles. UT experts say such an offer is surprising, because the COVID-19 pandemic has also led to a decrease in the activity of transportation companies.
More vacancies were filed in Marijampolė, Utena and Tauragė counties. In Marijampolė county, they are intended for wide-profile builders, in Utena, for auxiliary workers and unskilled garden workers, in Tauragė, for road workers and scaffold builders.
The largest increase in job vacancies occurred in the transportation and warehousing sector, with slightly higher job vacancies in the arts, entertainment and leisure activities, and in the information and communication sectors. Museums and amusement parks look for workers for various indoor and outdoor jobs to keep order. In all other sectors, job vacancies decreased. The need for support workers and cleaners has been maintained since the beginning of the quarantine.
Before the emergency declaration, an average of 4.6 thousand people per week were employed. unemployed March 16. employment decreased by more than half, on average 2.2 thousand. per week Last week, 1.9 thousand people were employed. people – this is 7%. More than a sixth. The most interesting thing is that the number of people working with commercial licenses has increased.
According to UT, on May 4. 197.4 thousand were registered in the country. unemployed, who represented 11.5%. The country’s working-age population. Since the beginning of the quarantine, the number of job applicants has increased by 36.9 thousand. (22.9 percent).
The jump in benefits is yet to come
As Sodra announced last week, the number of recipients of unemployment benefits in April was almost 70,000. That is around 2.5 thousand. more than in March and around 10 thousand. more than in April of last year. In April, Sodra accepted 33,000. decisions on the granting or renewal of unemployment benefits. During the same period last year, almost half of those decisions were made, about 18,000.
32 percent According to companies with offices in the Baltic States, comparing the three countries, the pandemic has had the greatest impact on the Lithuanian market.
“Growth in unemployment benefits is still pending. We began to monitor the situation when the number of reports of redundancy exceeds the number of reports received only in the second week of quarantine. People who were granted unemployment status in April they will start receiving unemployment benefits in May, “explained the director of Sodra. Julita Varanauskienė.
Sodra estimates that a day of quarantine will cost the social security fund approximately an additional LTL 2 million, taking into account increased social security benefits due to illness and unemployment. euros
According to Sodra, some workers who were not laid off felt the epidemic of fighting for reduced wages in their wallets. Although a steady decline has been observed in the number of people earning less than the monthly minimum wage (MMA) for a long time, March re-entered 2017. The level of employees earning less than MMA in March was 161,000, or 14.5 percent, while in February it was 120 thousand, or 10.8 percent.
The average income on which social security contributions were paid was € 1,324 in March (before taxes), that is. 11 euros, or 0.8 percent. lower than in February.
“According to preliminary data, in April we will collect approximately 45 million euros in social security contributions from policyholders and insured persons, or 20% less than expected in this year’s budget.
As the wage bill decreases and policyholders defer payment of social security contributions, Sodra’s income also decreases. Therefore, it may be necessary to use the accumulated Sodra reserves during the period of economic growth. Currently, we have accumulated around 0.5 billion of them. euros “, – said J.Varanauskienė.
Companies are tightening their belts
“The pandemic has certainly affected all Lithuanian companies. But only now, with the end of the first wave of the epidemic, can we begin to assess the extent of the impact and what awaits us in the future. Interestingly, as companies they save and streamline their operations, some “However, the overall market sentiment is worrying: Lithuanians are much more concerned than trade representatives from the world or even from neighboring Latvia,” said Povilas Blusius, remuneration market research consultant from the Baltic Salary Survey.
From March 27 to April 1. 175 human resources and senior managers from various sectors participated in the study: IT, manufacturing, sales, services, finance, real estate (RE), public sector and others.
Half (51%) of Lithuanian companies surveyed say they are extremely concerned about the challenges caused by the pandemic, the survey results show. In this regard, Lithuanians stand out not only among the Baltic States, but also in the global context. Although everyone is experiencing difficulties, the level of concern abroad is lower, at just 24%. Companies are extremely concerned about the future. Even in neighboring Latvia, companies feel calmer: here the concern index reaches 3.8 points out of 5, and in Lithuania it increases to 4.2 points.
“Moods in Lithuania are not the same, but differences in level of concern may also be related to objective factors. For example, 32% of companies with offices in the Baltic states say that, compared to the three countries, the pandemic has affected the Lithuanian market the most. ” the situation in our country is more complicated, naturally, the mood is also worse here “, considers P. Fliusius.
All business sectors said that the greatest impact was the decrease in the number of projects, clients or buyers. Only the real estate sector indicated that the biggest impact was not the lack of new clients, but the interruption of existing work: clients frozen payments or suspended ongoing projects. The transport and logistics sectors are most concerned about the future, while pharmaceuticals are the least concerned.
Despite concerns expressed about the pandemic, only 15 percent of the companies surveyed said they had provided workers with protective equipment. This figure also stands out in the global context: up to 65% of the surveyed employees of foreign companies dealt with their protection. In addition, although most Lithuanian companies expressed concern about emotional health and enthusiasm of employees, only 5 percent. made decisions to change the situation.
1.1 thousand – On average, as many new unemployed people applied to the Employment Service every week last week.
“It is important to mention that although only a part of the companies provided protection to the employees, we cannot really say that the companies did not take care of the employees. For example, up to 62% of the companies surveyed gave instructions to people on how working from home, 60% took care of cleaning the facilities. ” More than half of companies have conducted surveys to find out what the pandemic thinks and how they feel about it, and 59% of companies have moved the tools they need to move telework from their offices to avoid the need for personal equipment. . “Says P. Fliusius.
Although quarantine restrictions are easing and the scale of the global pandemic is easing, Lithuanian companies say the impact of the virus on business is not over. Slightly more than half (51%) of the companies surveyed said they believed that the impact of the pandemic on business would end only in the last quarter of this year.
If the business situation in Lithuania does not improve, companies plan to further reduce the number of employees and remuneration, according to the survey data.
“35% of companies plan to reduce wages and other expenses by an average of 21.9% if the situation does not change or if it worsens. And organizations that plan to reduce the number of employees would fire approximately 16.9% on average. So we can say that companies are determined to save a lot. ” “32% of companies do not intend to tighten their belts and will seek state support to stabilize the situation,” says P. Blusius.
Interestingly, despite the situation, some companies do not interrupt hiring processes. 30 percent Companies say recruiting practices have not changed, only one thing has changed: interviews with candidates are conducted remotely. And some companies are even watching the growing number of job applications, which is more pronounced in the financial sector. At the time, the number of apps in the hotel and restaurant sector fell dramatically to 85 percent.
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